Open AccessThe prevalence of the Staphylococcus aureus tst gene among community‐ and hospital‐acquired strains and isolates from Wegener's Granulomatosis patients
Author(s) -
Deurenberg Ruud H.,
Nieuwenhuis Rutger F.,
Driessen Christel,
London Nancy,
Stassen Frank R.,
Tiel Frank H.,
Stobberingh Ellen E.,
Vink Cornelis
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1016/j.femsle.2005.03.002
Subject(s) - staphylococcus aureus , microbiology and biotechnology , toxic shock syndrome , clone (java method) , virulence , biology , leukocidin , virology , gene , bacteria , methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus , genetics
To allow rapid identification of toxic shock syndrome toxin‐1 (TSST‐1)‐producing Staphylococcus aureus strains, a real‐time PCR assay for the detection of the tst gene, which encodes TSST‐1, was developed. The assay was applied to S. aureus isolates from patients with Wegener's Granulomatosis (WG), as well as isolates that were classified as either community‐ (CA) or hospital‐acquired (HA). No significant difference in the percentage of tst ‐positive strains was observed between isolates from WG patients and CA isolates (24% and 25%, respectively). In contrast, only 14% of the HA isolates were tst ‐positive ( p < 0.05 ). Investigation of the clonal relationship between tst ‐positive CA and HA strains could indicated the recent emergence of a virulent S. aureus clone in the community.